ST. KITTS HISTORY St. Kitts was originally inhabited by the Arawak and Carib tribes; the prehistoric hunter-gatherers who roamed the archipelago for centuries until the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1493. The Caribs aptly called the island Liamuiga, meaning fertile island because of its soft volcanic soil. Nonetheless, it was Christopher Columbus who named the island St. Kitts, after his favorite Saint. The first Non-Spanish settlement in the Caribbean occurred in St. Kitts, thus making it the Mother Colony of the West Indies and the launching pad for British and French expansion and domination in the Western Hemisphere. In 1624, an English Captain, Thomas Warner settled on St. Kitts because of its strategic central location for expansion, fertile soil, abundant fresh water, large salt deposits and a hospitable native population. Then, in 1625 Thomas Warner allowed an embattled French Captain, Pierre D’Esnambuc, to settle on the island, thus making St. Kitts the site of the first permanent British and French settlements in the New World. Consequently, St. Kitts became the battleground for many conflicts as the European powers fought for control of the island. The Indigenous Carib people were eventually wiped out in an ambush at Bloody Point, leaving the British and the French in a series of ferocious back and forth struggles for control of
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| The Golden Book of St. Kitts - GENERAL INFORMATION